Your local library could have a wealth of resources that can help you with your genealogy research. If you do most of your genealogy research online, you might not have considered a trip to the library. Unlike some websites that require you to pay in order browse their resources, the materials you find at your library are available for free.
A trip to the library can be a nice change of venue for a genealogist who primarily does genealogy research at home. If necessary, you might be able to bring your kids to the library with you, and let them pick out a few books while you select some genealogy research materials for yourself. Public libraries require people to have a library card before they can check anything out, but it is free to get the card. The only expenses come from late fees (which you can avoid by returning your books on time), or from making copies of information.
Public libraries should have information about local history. Want to know what your town was like one hundred years ago? Your library might have books of historical information about your area, which may include the specific information you are looking for. Your public library will have archives of the local newspaper. Newspapers are a great source for genealogists who are looking for obituaries and marriage announcements. A newspaper could contain information about an important, local, historical event that one of your ancestors was around to experience.
State libraries should have archives of state newspapers, which will give a genealogist even more to search through. They often have copies of records that pertain to that particular state. Perhaps you can find a copy of a deed for land that was owned by one of your ancestors in the resources provided by a state library. If you know that one of your relatives attended a particular college or university, you can visit that school’s library. You might find a yearbook from when your relative attended school, which may include a photo of that relative. Was your relative an athlete? Archives of the school newspaper might be a source of information about the games that he or she played in.
Don’t have any libraries near you? Instead of visiting a library in person, you can try using WorldCat. It is a catalog of all the materials that are held in over 10,000 libraries that are located all around the world. It includes public, academic, and state and national libraries. It also includes information held by archives, and historical societies. Genealogists can use WorldCat to help them with their genealogy research. The website works with the LDS Family History Library, Ancestry.com, and ProQuest’s HeritageQuest, which is convenient if you already are connected to one or more of those. WorldCat is free for everyone to use.
WorldCat has archives of historic newspapers, and newspapers that are from countries other than the United States. You can find diaries and journals, historic photographs, oral histories, and genealogy magazines. You can use WorldCat to help you locate probate records, burial records, indexes to wills, cemetery records, and indexes to births, marriages, and deaths. These are just a few examples of the resources that WorldCat has for genealogists.
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